For a diva, it's home

Ms. Walsh, who once believed she'd need to move to Los Angeles or New York to prosper, has instead capitalized on the changing trend in the 17 years since her arrival from her native Dallas. From more modest beginnings as a dancer in the perennial showgirl act, "Jubilee!" Walsh graduated to co-starring in major shows that matched her on stage with Broadway legends Michael Crawford and Tommy Tune.

All the while, she and her husband have been able to raise their 11-year-old son on a desert ranch about six miles from work.

"I can actually come in and perform before 1,700 people every night and then get in my car and go home," says Walsh. "It's quite fantastic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's not that many places where I can do that - just go home and be Mom."

She's not wrong, says magician Lance Burton. For some forms of entertaining - particularly comedy and magic - there's no place else in the country to land a steady gig because there's no market for it on a continuous basis, Mr. Burton says.

"Las Vegas has been for a long time the one place where you can go and be an entertainer and have a seminormal life," says Burton, a Louisville, Ky., native, now into the seventh year of his 13-year contract at the Monte Carlo Hotel-Casino. "Most entertainers move from city to city every night, seeing nothing but the inside of hotel rooms and the venue. I live a very simple life here."

Many headliners become involved in rather ordinary activities and mundane civic concerns. In 1998, Teller - the silent half of the famed comedy-magic routine Penn and Teller who appear nightly at the Rio Hotel & Casino - spoke out alongside his neighbors at a series of county-commission meetings to thwart the placement of a garbage transfer station near their homes. Laboring to show he was at one with the people, Teller told a local newspaper the episode was "a real good example for Las Vegas that when there's a problem and your neighbors make themselves heard, it can really count."

For her part, Walsh recently brought along two of her "Mamma Mia!" costars to her son's public school during Nevada Reading Week to read to his fifth-grade class. They threw in a performance of the ABBA hit "Dancing Queen" for good measure, something kids growing up elsewhere are unlikely to get from bringing their moms to school.

Rudner and Burton say that despite their celebrity status, they move quietly and unharrassed as they pick up groceries or walk their dogs. Local Las Vegans are accustomed to having celebrity in their midst.

Still, there are some perks, Rudner admits. "What's really scary is that all the salesladies at the malls know me, so when something goes on sale that they know I like, they hide it for me and call me," says Rudner. "It's like having my own personal shoppers all over Las Vegas."

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